A celebrity chef has joined Harvey Weinstein in news headlines about sexual harassment in the workplace. A work environment that tolerates sexual harassment makes workers ill. It’s worker safety issue in need of much more attention.

As several others have already noted, after almost 12 years, Scienceblogs is shutting down at month’s end. Though I’ve done most of my writing elsewhere over the last few years, I’d certainly like to keep the archives of this blog up somewhere, and maintain it as a place to post random musings that don’t fit…

Appeals Court judges Merrick Garland and David Tatel probed and cajoled a courtroom filled with attorneys who were either challenging or defending OSHA’s 2016 silica standard. I share some of my favorite quotes from the September 26 proceeding.

Reporters investigate a court-ordered rehab center that funnels unpaid labor to a poultry processor; Ben & Jerry’s commits to improving conditions for workers on dairy farms; Massachusetts is one step closer to providing all public-sector workers with OSHA protections; and the Trump administration rolls back protections for transgender workers.

Pres. Trump’s nominee to head the nation’s mine safety agency testified today at a Senate confirmation hearing. David Zatezalo answered questions about an epidemic of lung disease among coal miners and the adequacy of MSHA’s inspection force.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced this week that he cannot support President Trump’s nominee to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Will Manchin be able to convince any Republican colleagues that Trump’s pick is not right for the job?

Spring, 2004. I was in the second year of my post-doc, with kids ages 4 and 2. Because I was no longer a student, the full brunt of my student loan payments had hit me, which were collectively almost double the cost of my mortgage. To put it generously, money was tight. Truthfully, we were…

Public interest continues to grow for accurate information on the working conditions faced by the 450 million workers in global supply chains. The last quarter’s reports, through September 2017, include information on workplace health and safety, discrimination and sexual harassment of women workers, and corporate non-compliance with even basic labor laws in the electronics, apparel, and food industries.

Super Photo

In Conversation

"An estimated 9 million deaths in 2015 can be attributed to air, water, and soil pollution. This compares to an estimated 4 million deaths from obesity, 2.3 million from alcohol, and 1.4 million on roadways."

In Conversation II

"Integrative medicine shows up at the gates of academic medicine looking like 'nutrition, physical activity, and stress reduction,' but once the horse is pulled into the ivory tower of academia, out jumps the real quackery, like naturopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture, and functional medicine."

Super Photo II

Insight II

In Conversation III

"It is a little known fact that I love cathedrals and their stonework, indeed all old stonework, and at one point considered becoming a stonemason. I didn’t because, well, 'it would have been weird' given my life-trajectory to that point."